The council will launch an online store in coming weeks where people will be able to download smartphone and tablet computer applications, or apps, that showcase anything uniquely Wellington. It is thought to be the first council-developed app store in the country.

Council staff say the apps available will cover “things as simple as locating disabled toilets to things that we have yet to think of”. The initiative is part of a wider plan to turn Wellington’s aspirations of being a “smart city” into reality.

The council’s manager of information and technology, Channa Jayasinha, said about 12 apps would be available when the store opened. They would include the My Parx app that helps users explore city parks and reserves, as well as The Pack, which allows friends to keep track of each other and call for help on a night out.

That sounds a very cool initiative. There’s lots of useful apps a Council could have. Maybe one which tells you where the closest available carpark is?

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 6th, 2013 at 11:00 am and is filed under Internet, New Zealand.
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16 Responses to “A WCC app store”

I would think there’s little need for a ‘Store’. A single well designed web application that was client screen size aware could do it all at a single cost without issues caused by satisfying proprietary demands.

Wrap it in an App skin if that’s needed for users only aware of Apps on their phones, but keep the original a lithe product that can hop from device to device using non-proprietary protocols and formats.

DPF, if the Labour leadership candidates announced a policy to pour taxpayer money into app stores, would you not be among the first to criticise it?

[DPF: No. And I am in favour of Govt making their services more user-friendly which apps can do. Bit of course it depends on price. If WCC was spending $500,000 I’d yell foul. But the level of spending seems appropriate]

Ridiculous. If they have their own app store it will not work with Apple iPhones or iPads, which make a large part of the market. Un-jailbroken iOS devices will only run apps from iTunes. All they need is to actually make apps, and submit them to existing app stores, including iTunes.

Or is that what they are doing, and the app store talk is another case of journalists-making-shit-up?

@beautox I agree! An app is one thing, an app store is something completely different. Not only are Apple owners and users not going to be able to use the apps created by the Wellington City Council but, it is also going to be extremely costly to create a whole new app store. As for competition the council app store would have a lot to live up to.

This idea needs to be rethought, as there are already perfectly good app stores out there which a council app could be implemented through.